Summary Review: A fine start to this pleasant fantasy somehow dissipated and it became- for me- mundane.

Blurb: Magical species must never mix. According to the rules, Simon Osborne should ignore the children’s cries for help. After all, they’re werewolf cubs, and he’s an apprentice mage. But for once in his life, Simon breaks the rules and rescues the cubs, saving them from a demon intent on draining them of their magic.

Of course, all actions have consequences, and Simon’s bold move earns him the displeasure of his peers and the attention of the cubs’ alpha, a man named Gray Townsend.

The last thing Gray needs is a mage in his life, but Simon did save his son. Since Simon is now a friend of the pack, Gray doesn’t have much choice about it—or the forbidden attraction that goes along with it. Unfortunately for the alpha, he needs Simon’s help to track down the demon behind the kidnappings—before it strikes again. Simon and Gray must join forces to protect the pack, even as they struggle to resist the temptation that threatens to destroy them both.

Review:

I particularly liked the beginning of this book, it placed you right in the middle of the action, introduced a brave sensitive empathic hero rescuing werewolf cubs, there was a little magical society background gently thrown in and I thought – yes this is a going to be a very good read. But then somewhere along the way almost intangibly, it became for me only a mildly pleasant read. I’m trying to work out why.

The world building here was really based around the different types of magic infusing the characters; mind, body or soul magic, which was a nice easy distinction. While some complications with these definitions added to the story’s plot. I liked Simon, our representative of mind magic, and thought his situation as apprentice mage with the cabin, the herbs and the magic was delightful. His occasional struggles with his magic added to his vulnerable charm.

The werewolf society described here felt very organised and intellectually reasonable, this is not rule by blood, tooth and claw. Perhaps it felt a bit werewolf-lite to me. Gray is very much a paternal Alpha, understandable given the strong role of the family in the story. His son Garon and the other cubs adding lots of cute and cuddles to the mix.

The relationship between Simon and Gray worked well enough. Any threats were predominantly physical or magical; there was no real emotional tension here, which might be why I felt it lacked salt. The more I think about it, aside from the man sex, as it developed this book felt rather like a rather young Y/A book, simple concepts, undemanding characters with a pleasant happy nourishing family background. I think Simon was by far the strongest written and most interesting character.The villain of the piece was recognisable from almost the moment he drew breath, but that is often the case and I rarely take offence at that. The mage’s council was very under drawn and I didn’t believe in their responses at all.

The narrative is very linear, we follow the story from point A to point B with no unexpected diversions along the way. Actually, while trying not to sound sound too lit crit here, the writer’s language became very simplistic in the latter stages of the book. Every other sentence included the conjunction ” and ” in an overuse of this grammatical connection. This led to a very pedestrian feel to the story, that I found really flattened my response to it.

I enjoyed the beginning, the magical society, and the main characters, but somehow the story became less interesting for me the longer it went on. There were loose ends which should have been resolved, but might mean there is a sequel in the making. This is another one I feel other readers might enjoy rather more than I did.

Author

8 comments

Simple is sometimes better. I really feel like we read different books, i felt this book was fresh and fun. It had just enough sex in it. More and more we find the characters declaring there love for one another and saturating the story with sex scene after sex scene. This didn’t do that. It built a relationship between the characters before they were having sex as well as for a werewolf story not having the imprinting was a great surprise, again I feel authors use imprinting as a way of not having to build an actual relationship with the characters. Oh he is my mate. Oh I love him. It gave me enough of an ending to be happy but kept me wanting more. I guess it is simply a differnce of opinion on this one.

I found the writing style in the beginning was attractive, but really felt it went off the boil towards the end, with your ‘simple’ becoming underwritten and a bit bland for my taste, but as you so rightly say we clearly saw it differently.

I really agree with you that imprinting is so overused it’s sad. The next werewolf book I’m reviewing doesn’t use it ….. :bravo:

Overall I liked this too. The concept was different and I liked that. I was really engaged for most of it. I too was less impressed with the ending and felt they left it hanging way too much. There were fundamental questions about Simon’s entire existence but no one seemed to realize that and then the book was done.

There is a sequel in the making( being publised aug or sept??). I enjoyed this one a lot and see what you mean about the second half of the book.
Even so I liked this one a lot for it’s novelty concepts and non traditonal weretheme thing.

I so wanted to love this, had a lot of my favourite things, but it just went really flat for me. Thanks for telling me about the sequel Ingrid, I’m hoping it is a tighter read. Glad you enjoyed this one.